Armitstead thrilled but thoughts on gold

Lizzie Armitstead was happy after claiming Great Britain's first medal of the London 2012 Olympic Games in the women's road race, but was a little rueful after missing out on gold.

Armitstead was beaten to victory at the end of a pulsating 140-kilometre race, which featured two climbs of Surrey's Box Hill, as prolific winner Marianne Vos of Holland triumphed on The Mall.

With the peloton cast adrift, the 23-year-old from Otley was in line for Britain's first medal of the home Games, but the question remained which colour.

Armitstead positioned herself behind the Dutchwoman entering the finishing straight but Vos was strong enough to hold off the Briton, who had to settle for second. Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya was third.

Armitstead said: "I'm really, really happy. Maybe later I'll start thinking about that gold, but I'm happy with silver at the moment.

"I was thinking about trying to play poker in the final and I sat on with about 3k (kilometres) to go and I thought that was my best chance and it came off.

"In retrospect I should've tried to jump Marianne but she's the fastest and I'm happy enough with silver.

On the first British podium place of London 2012, Armitstead said: "It's something very special and it hasn't sunk in yet."

"Hopefully, the GB ball is rolling now and I'm just so grateful to my team-mates, friends and family," she added.

"It means four years of hard work has paid off."